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“So, what are you going to do then?” he asks when I finish explaining their situation to him and I shrug, fiddling with one of the fries on my plate.
“No fucking clue.” I toss the fry back down and lean back in my chair. “But we’ll figure something out. We have to.”
“Asking somebody to start their life over completely, though…” His voice trails off and I nod.
“It’s better than ending up dead.”
He sighs. “I suppose that’s true. Just breaks my heart for them. I’ve lived in Baton Rouge my entire life. I can’t imagine being forced to leave by some needle dick prick who couldn’t accept defeat.”
“That’s your assessment of the man?” I ask with a scoff. He shrugs, a smile playing on his lips.
“It’s all I got at the moment. No real man would feel the need to make the woman in his life feel small and scared.”
I nod.
In that, we are in complete agreement.
Although, where Derek is concerned, I lean more towards “fucking psychopath” and less towards “needle dick prick”.
“Well, son,” Calvin says with a sigh, tossing his napkin down on the table. “It was good to catch up with you but I’ve got to get going.”
I nod, pulling out my wallet. “Yeah, so do I.”
“Put that shit away. It’s my treat,” he says, a grin stretching across his face and I roll my eyes.
“I’ve got the next one, Cal.”
He nods. “Sure.”
The waitress comes with the bill and she doesn’t even set it on the table before Calvin is handing his credit card over to her. I finish off my glass of water and stand, tossing a few bills down on the table for the tip.
“Gotta go, old man,” I tell him, slipping my wallet back into my pocket. “Got a fight to get to.”
He points to the money on the table. “Well, take that shit with you.”
“Huh?” I ask, backing away from the table.
“Boy…” he calls but I hold two fingers up before spinning away from him as I walk towards the door. I’ll probably get a text about being a little shit later but that’s just part of our relationship. Calvin hardly ever lets me pay for anything but he’s already done too damn much for me to just accept that. The man gave me a free place to live for damn near eighteen months before I finally got back on my feet so I owe him more than I can probably ever repay. And he won’t even let me try.
Fuck.
I hate having that kind of debt hanging over my head.
Calvin never makes it feel like that but still… I can’t just freely accept his level of generosity without giving something back. It’s part of the reason that he knows he can come to me with something like the Lennon situation and I’ll handle it.
Once I reach my bike, I pull out my phone and call Streak.
“Yo,” he answers on the second ring. Tiny little screams and squeals echo in the background from his girls - Nora and Hattie - but fade as he finds somewhere quieter to talk.
“How’s the perimeter looking?”
He scoffs. “You think I’d answer the phone all fucking casual if our security was having an issue? The fuck you take me for? An amateur?”
“No,” I answer, fighting back a grin. I piss Streak off on the fucking daily, calling and asking about security to make sure Raya and Joey are still safe. At this point, it’s become a joke more than anything because I trust Streak implicitly and I know he runs a tight fucking ship. “Just checking.”
“Yeah, okay, asshole. Tell me why you really just interrupted dinner with my girls.”
I bite my cheek to keep from laughing. “Just had dinner with Calvin. I think you might have some information for me.”
